


Question and Answer

by Thimblerig



Series: The Lion and the Serpent [4]
Category: The Musketeers (2014)
Genre: Biblical References, Discussion of Consent Issues, Gen, I got my research from The Google.Com, Non-Sexual Intimacy, The one where Aramis and Milady are girlfriends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-07
Updated: 2015-10-07
Packaged: 2018-04-25 08:22:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4953196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thimblerig/pseuds/Thimblerig
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>"Are you planning on pimping me out tonight?" he asked, with some curiosity.</em>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Question and Answer

**Author's Note:**

> Some elliptical discussion of consent issues. Milady has a sharp thing in her hand, which probably counts as a warning in itself.

Preparations vary from battle to battle. In an upstairs room, tiny but very clean, she adjusted skirts of a deep, eye-catching red and fastened confections of pearl and diamond to her ear lobes and around her throat. Picking up a brush she dusted a few precious grains of powdered pearl into her face - not enough to show, really, but it would make her skin glow gently. (The jewels were fake, and she, not as young as she pretended, but they would pass in lamplight, they would pass.)

A jingling tread behind her and Aramis intoned, "'And she took sandals upon her feet, and put about her her bracelets, and her chains, and her rings, and her earrings, and all her ornaments, and decked herself bravely...'" He stood in the doorway, darkly splendid in a severe black suit. She eyed him critically and beckoned him to kneel in front of her. 

He raised one eyebrow as she buried her fingers in his hair, twisting the locks into loose curls, and turned his face this way and that, pondering whether to pinch the tips of his ears for colour, or to use kohl to paint his eyes. "Are you planning on pimping me out tonight?" he asked, with some curiosity.

"An unattainable ideal works better for this narrative," she answered. "Keep it buttoned." The kohl, she decided: a hint of the exotic would work well for the character she meant him to play.

"Would you?" she asked, as she rifled through the jars on the vanity for a spindly brass pot and unscrewed the lid, dipping in a small stick with a dull point.

"Hm?"

She held him firmly by the jaw and lifted the point of the stick to the inner corner of his eye. 

"Would you, if I asked?"

"Ask me, and find out."

"Hm. Close your eyes," she said then, "and trust me."

As she drew along his eyelids he asked, "And you?"

Her lips curled, though he could not see. "I've done a lot of things. I won't tell you I didn't enjoy most of them."

Black-lined eyes opened and he frowned at her. 

"Did I bring you to fight my own battles? Poor, _gallant_ Aramis," she mocked, touching the hinge of his jaw. His breath stopped, and he batted her hand away. "Don't do that again," he said hoarsely, rising to his feet, seeming almost bewildered.

She decided to let that one go. "Shall we?"

He bowed to her, low and courtly, and offered his arm. She wrapped her hand around it and rose in a haze of rustling skirts and civet perfume. Enemy forces were arrayed before them, and she meant to bring them down.

 

_Smite by the deceit of my lips the servant with the prince, and the prince with the servant: break down their stateliness by the hand of a woman._

**Author's Note:**

> Primping and gossiping about their love lives - I told you they were girlfriends.
> 
> A weird amount of research went into this, which I'm sharing because I found it fascinating.
> 
>  _And she took sandals upon her feet/Smite by the deceit of my lips..._ \- Aramis quotes the Book of Judith, one of the bible apocrypha, which book!Aramis mentioned reading at a pivotal time in his life. I expect Milady would quite enjoy the story. Judith: "Our city is surrounded and if we don't surrender in five days we'll all die of thirst. I don't like these choices. I'm going to put on a nice dress, I'm going to get my guile on, and then I'm going to walk into the enemy camp, smite the commander with his own sword, and walk out again with his head in my lunch bag. And I'm going to have a long and happy life after that. Any questions?" Also interesting for the massive amounts of spin, and the thematic link between kosher food and sexual purity (once a person learns how to analyse literary texts, it's really hard to stop, okay?). My ref was a version of the King James bible, with modernised spelling: http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Judith-Chapter-10/
> 
> I got most of my notes on period makeup from posts on this fascinating blog:  
> http://madameisistoilette.blogspot.co.nz/2014/12/womens-makeup-in-17th-century.html They didn't _always_ use horrifyingly toxic lead face-paint to get their complexions pale, though I imagine that the pearl powder that Milady uses here was rather expensive. The kohl would have made for an unusual look - all the period pictures I checked out, for men and women, had fine, almost invisible eyelashes (and _maybe_ a hint of discreet eyeshadow). Flea, if she dressed like a lady, would have fit right in; Emile Bonnaire not so much. The info on kohl/kajal/surma I got from a potted history here: http://www.cosmeticsandskin.com/cdc/kohl.php, (mostly from a Western perspective) and a much more in-depth study here: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/237700884_REVIEW_KOHL_(SURMA)_RETROSPECT_AND_PROSPECT The term, especially when used by Westerners, can be imprecise, and formulations can vary all over. Application notes come from these tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaNdESvYElQ, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d8RlHMuvdE, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3if8Din2hY. I've never personally used it, please forgive me if I've introduced any inaccuracy. I'll also note, if you ever want to give it a try, that some formulations have a high lead content, and _this is a health concern_. Read labels; use responsibly. I could actually see Aramis keeping up the habit in the future - it's supposed to cut down on sun glare, something a marksman would appreciate.
> 
> Given the premise of this series of stories I can dress these two up as just about anything - it is a terrible, horrible responsibility. There could be pirates...


End file.
